Chrono Chaos
by Lord Genesis Shadow
Summary: All he wanted was to be like his father, a hero. Now he's got a chance to be a greater hero than his father ever was. Will he be able to live up to his father's name, or will his dreams stay just that? Or maybe, will another one come true? Chapter five.
1. A day at the fair, what's that light?

**Okay, the voters have spoken. Out of three, two of you chose Chrono Chaos over The Ballad of GunImpmon, so this is what I'm posting this week. Since Sparrow's Flight and Fallout Warrior aren't doing so well, I'm only going to post one chapter this week. Sorry, but since I've been getting fewer reader than I'd like, I'm going to try to work on them before posting again. And Ace's Journey isn't done yet, but I'm not posting the chapter this week. Next week though, along with the second chapter of this one.**

**Now for the news. I've not received any requests, and I'm still taking them. One shots only though, I can't push that point enough. If you've got a one shot idea, pitch it to me and I'll see if I can make it a reality. Check my profile for the information I want, because I have a specific system to make things a little easier.**

**Disclaimer: I, Lord Genesis Shadow, do not own the rights to Chrono Trigger. That right belongs to Square Enix, one of the best RPG makers I've ever known.  
…**

My name is Gene Alastor. I've had a good life so far. Well, most of my life has been good. I'm sixteen, and I live in a small house a few miles away from the village with my mother. I'm five feet eight inches in height, a bit tall for my age. I weigh, about one hundred and forty pounds or so. I haven't checked my weight in a few weeks. I have long white hair, reaching the middle of my back, but it works for me. My skin has a light tan to it, though I spend so much time in the sun one could expect me to be practically bronze all over. My eyes are bright green, and I like looking them over in a mirror from time to time.

I rarely change out of my usual outfit. I wear a black training Gi, along with my tailored black training pants, secured by a simple rope. I wear a pair of black martial arts slippers, with black tabi socks, because they're comfortable and they fit well. Last, I never go anywhere without my favorite black headband. My father gave it to me, and it was frayed at the ends. It made me feel strong when I wore it, so I rarely removed it, only to bathe, though I even wear it to sleep.

I've been called handsome by many girls from the village, and I've got a martial artist's physique to go with it. I'm self trained in the art of swordsmanship, as well as basic martial arts. I know some advanced techniques, but it takes a lot of energy out of me to use them.  
…

I drew my blade, ready to strike the training dummy again, when the bells chimed at the square. I looked up from my stance and saw birds rising into the sky, and I smiled. It was the festival again, the annual festival I looked forward to every year. I returned the pitted and rusted blade to the scabbard. I had finally saved up enough money to buy a new sword, and a sharp one I would buy. A silver sword, forged by Melchior the swordsmith, who came every year from across the sea to sell his wares at the festival.

"Today." I said calmly. "Is going to be one for me to remember." I looked at the clothes I had set aside. They were my fathers, before he had passed away some fifteen years ago. They looked exactly like mine, only with a brighter sheen and a higher thread count. I was only a year old at the time, but I had shed many a tear for the man my mother told me so much of. 'For you father, I will teach myself to wield a proper sword, so I can finally be able to wield yours. I will learn the values you wanted so badly to be instilled within me, and I will protect that which is important to me, at the cost of my very being if I must. But I vow that I will do what is right, and I will do that which my heart tells me is true.' I smiled and walked over to the clothes. My mother was already at the festival, but I wanted to get in some more training time. I had done a lot of work for a lot of people to get my money, and my mother had helped by giving me a ten gold allowance each week. Fifty two weeks was an eighth of what I needed, but fifty two weeks of working for the various villagers in this and the southern village had given me the rest, and a bit more. I would buy my sword, but I would get my mother a gift as well. And if any was left over, providing it was enough, I'd buy something for the girl I had long since developed a crush for. 'For her, I'll buy that necklace she had looked at last year. Melchior promised he wouldn't sell it to anyone but me. I hope he keeps his promise.'  
…

I walked into the square and heard the cheerful music, the excited shouting of the children, and sounds of joy all around. It brought a great smile to my face. I saw a boy in a blue suit with red hair and a white headband walking around, looking about happily. I knew him from passing, and he was a fellow self training swordsman. His name was Crono, and he lived alone with his mother as well. He was always looking out for others, but he seemed to have plenty of time to train. I spotted Melchior's booth and smiled wider. I saw the necklace as well. It had a fine alchemically treated silver chain, and a brooch of the same silver. It would open so that one could place a pair of pictures within. I had a small photo of Lucca, something taken by her parents that was given to my mother, which she gave to me. I figured it would look better in the small brooch. I had five thousand gold coins, meaning the sword would set me back to one thousand. It too was alchemic silver, and it was a beautiful blade. He had set one aside, a masterwork as he put it. It was the sharpest blade he had ever forged, worth at least double, but he gave me a discount since I was working so hard to earn the gold for it.

'Okay, today is the day I finally get my sword.' I thought. 'I finally have enough to earn a real blade, capable of cutting down those monsters in the forest for real training, instead of all this training with a blunt, rusted, and pitted blade.' I patted my left hip, devoid of the old sword. I had put it in my room, on a shelf where I would see it as I fell asleep at night. It served me well over the eight years I trained with it. I am fifteen, and it took me until I was seven to finally become strong enough to lift the sword, which at the time was as tall as me. 'I can finally prepare to protect my mom.' I felt a slight blush appear on my face. 'And Lucca, if she will let me.' I walked over to Melchior and he smiled at the sight of me.

"Hello there Gene." He said. "So, did you finally earn that four thousand gold to buy my masterpiece?" I nodded.

"Yes I have Melchior." I said proudly. I pulled out the four bags of gold, each holding a thousand. He laughed heartily. "I worked every day for the whole year to get all of this." He smiled widely and turned his back to me. I heard the soft sounds of scabbards knocking against each other, and the unsheathing of blades every so often. Finally, he made a triumphant sound, an 'Aha', and he turned to face me. The scabbard was beautiful, a true sight to behold. It was blue, with white cloud patterns. It was painted to mimic a midsummer sky. "Wow, it's beautiful. But, didn't it used to be in a black scabbard?" He nodded.

"I figured that since the festival is in the summer." He said proudly. "I'd make a new scabbard for it, out of sturdy oak, and I figured that I'd paint it the colors of the sky, clouds included. I've also honed the blade to a far keener state, making it even sharper, and I've also made it more flexible, to account for the lost density." I set down the four bags and he set it the blade in my hands. "It's treated so that it will never lose the edge I put on it, but be careful, because it can still break." I nodded and looked at him. He held out a silver sash to me. "This goes with it, free of charge. No swordsman using a Katana should ever be without a sword sash." I smiled as I slowly took it. I held the blade under my arm and moved the sash around my waist, tying it carefully. I put the sword into it and pulled it tighter, making it cling to my body. "So, what do you think?"

"I like it." I said calmly. I put my left hand on the hilt and smiled. "I feel, complete."

"Well, since you feel so good, do you still want that trinket?" He asked. I nodded. "Okay, that's one hundred and fifty gold for it." I smiled and pulled the last gold bag. I pulled out one coin after another at a rapid pace that must have seemed a blur to anyone that passed. I set down the last coin and Melchior smiled. "Well, you're getting quite fast Gene. You'll be quite the great swordsman in a few years." I smiled as he handed me the necklace.

"Thanks Melchior." I said. "I don't know what I'd do without you." I looked at the locket and he held out another. "I only paid for one." He shook his head.

"These come in sets of two." He said calmly. "I always make them in pairs, because these are lockets of love and friendship." I nodded and slowly took the second. They each had a pattern on them, but they were different. One had a flame emblazoned on the front, and the other had what looked like a person and a long shadow. "The Flames of Friendship and Kindness is what I call the first one I gave you. It symbolizes how much one appreciates and cherishes their friends and the kindness in their hearts." I nodded with a smile. That suited Lucca perfectly. She was a good person, a great friend, and she was as kind a person as I had ever known. "The second, is the Shadows of Love and Honor. Normally, one would not assume shadows, a form of darkness, a quality of either, but I believe that love has a darkness to it, since two people that love each other want that person only for themselves." I nodded slowly. "And honor, a feeling that one is doing the right thing, regardless of what they are doing. A person feeling such honor can be considered stubborn, not noticing the world around them, defending what they love, but never seeing what they are hurting to protect it." I thought of his words. Did he know how I felt about Lucca? Did he know why I was training? He sounded as if he were warning me. I simply nodded, trying to understand his words.  
…

I drew the sword as Lucca activated her newest machine, Gato, the singing robot that trained people by letting them fight him.

"Okay, he's ready." She said warily. "And, I did as you asked. He's on the highest setting. He's not going to hold back even a little bit." She bit her lip. "Are you completely sure about this? I mean, he's got some pretty mean attacks when I turn off the limiter, and he won't stop until you set the meter down to the E." I spun the sword over my wrist. I wore the Shadows of Love and Honor around my neck, and I felt more confident than ever about my skill. I had mastered a skill that transferred a powerful gust of wind down the edge of the rusted sword, and it had cut my training dummy in half. I had only gotten better at it, making the wind faster, and sharper. It actually cut some of the rust off of the old blade one time, and it sent the particles into the dummy, making small holes. "Okay, if you're sure about this." I smiled as the eyes lit up. He didn't speak, but he walked forward slowly, with an air of determination. Lucca hid in one of the tents, likely afraid that I would be hurt.

"They call me Gato." The robot finally said in a deep tenor. "I have metal joints." He was singing. "If, you can beat me up, I'll give you fifteen points!" He swung his large right fist and I smiled. I was fast; there wasn't one person that didn't think so in either village. I had jumped onto his arm a split second before he could hit me. I ran up his arm and swung the sword at his head before jumping away. There was a long gray line where my sword had hit him, a mark through the paint. I had jumped over ten feet away, landing with my feet against the trunk of a tree. "I shall make you pay for that, you little white haired punk!" He held up both arms as he sang. A compartment in his stomach opened and a large gloved fist shot out. "Now I'll make you taste my fist, you little human skunk!" I jumped over the fist as it smashed into the tree. I ran along it as the scissor crossed arm retracted, making me approach him even faster.

"My name, is Gene Alastor!" I sang. I jumped over his head, slashing again. "I have a silver blade!" I ran around him as he turned. He couldn't keep up with me. "From the sword smith Melchior, 'twas by him it was made!" I sliced along his back, making him turn faster. The meter was almost empty. I jumped up and kicked the meter, making it land on the E side. He stopped moving and looked down at me. I stepped back as he pulled out a microphone and held it to his 'mouth'. He began singing, but I tuned him out. I was smiling too widely to care about his voice, despite how remarkably similar it sounded to Lucca's father. 'Alright then, I'm getting good. Lucca makes the best sparring machines, and I beat her newest model, and he wasn't holding back.' I sheathed the blade as the fist came out, holding fifteen silver cards in it.

"Wow, I never thought anyone could handle Gato at his full power." Lucca said. The fist retracted and Gato's orange eyes dimmed. "Color me impressed." She held her hands up with her right eye closed, meaning she was sincerely amazed at my skills. I simply put the cards in a small pouch made for them and put it away. "I always said machines are great, but you just proved that there's no substitute for human skill." I rubbed the back of my head with a toothy grin.

"Well, I do train every single day." I said. "Even after a long day of delivering milk and newspapers, helping out with carpenters, and even unloading crates at the docks." She smiled and pointed her right index finger at me, making me smile wider.

"And let's not forget all the help you gave me and my dad." She said. "Unloading all that heavy machinery, those gears, and even that time you helped my dad move that entire steel I beam into place." I laughed slightly, closing my mouth, but still smiling.

"Heh, I guess I am pretty helpful." I said. "But hey, what are friends for?"  
…

I stood at the ice cream stall. I wanted to wait until after Lucca demonstrated her new invention. She told me it was something amazing, but she wouldn't say what. I smiled as the man gave me a vanilla scoop in the waffle cone. I had set down the gold beforehand and licked the side of the treat.

"So, are you going to give that pretty girl a present this year?" A female voice asked. I turned and saw my mom standing behind me. I smiled and nodded.

"Yes." I replied. "I managed to get her this beautiful silver locket." She smiled and walked up to the counter. The man had already prepared her a strawberry cone and handed it to her. She reached for her change purse but I had already set down the gold for it. "I've got it mom. I haven't worked hard all year, saving all this gold, just so my mother can pay for her own ice cream." She smiled as the vender closed his eyes with a grin of his own. I licked the vanilla and enjoyed it. I loved vanilla a lot more than chocolate or strawberry. I actually couldn't eat the strawberry flavor because it hurt my stomach. It made me sick just to have even a small taste. I had discovered that unfortunate fact at Lucca's house one day. Her father had brought home some snacks for her mother, as well as Lucca. He had gotten some extra so he gave me one. They were hollow chocolates filled with strawberry syrup. I had instantly gotten sick after the first one, and I had a coughing fit. I had run out of the house quickly and regurgitated the chocolate and my breakfast into their garbage can. "So, how do you like the fair this year mom?" She smiled as she licked her frozen treat.

"I'm having a grand time." She said. "It's the best one yet I think." I saw a girl with blonde hair in a white tunic and pants run by, looking everywhere with more excitement than I had ever seen. "It's so peaceful; I just can't imagine a better place to be today." She sighed contently. "I just wish your father were still here Milliardo." I blushed at the name. I was named for my father, Milliardo Alastor. He was the greatest swordsman in the kingdom, wielding a powerful blade that struck down monsters with a single swing. One day, we had received a letter that he had been killed by a powerful monster, but the monster had not escaped, and had died shortly after. "He would be so proud of you." I smiled.

"I know mom." I said. "He'd be right here next to you, eating an ice cream with us. He loved the fair. And he'd love this one." She nodded. "The first Millennial Fair. It's been a thousand years since this kingdom began."  
…

"Step right up, and be the first to try out our latest invention!" Lucca called happily. Her father pulled down the sheet and rapidly rolled it up, revealing the strangest contraption I've seen yet. "The Teleportation Pod, able to move you from one place to another in the blink of an eye!" She winked as she said that, making me smile. Her father walked over to one 'pod' and gestured to it with a smile. "Step onto this platform, which we call pod 'A'." Her father walked over to the other and gestured, still smiling. "And you will instantly arrive in pod 'B'. It's fast, painless, and amazingly smooth. I guarantee you'll love it, and I think you'll agree, it's the best way to travel." I smiled wider as Crono looked it over with amusement. The girl I saw before was next to him, wearing a beautiful pendant around her neck. "So, who wants to go first?"

"Oooh, that looks so amazing." The blonde girl said. I saw her turn to Crono. "What do you think? Should we try it?" I stepped forward and the crowd stared at my bravery. Some of Lucca's inventions didn't turn out, properly, at the best of times.

"Oh, here we go folks!" Lucca called as I stepped up beside her, turning to the crowd. "Look at this specimen of manliness, clad in black and wielding one of Melchior's signature blades!" I crossed my arms and gave a smug look to the crowd. "Here we have Gene Alastor, one of the most helpful men in the whole village, ready to put his name to our teleportation pods!" I flexed slightly, deciding to give the crowd a show. "Isn't he the fearless one folks? He knows firsthand what some of our more, technical, inventions can do when there's a mistake. But he's willing to tempt fate, to show you that what we have here is perfectly safe." I smiled wider.

'Anything for you Lucca.' I thought. I flexed again, and the crowd stared intently. I flashed them another cocky smile. "Don't worry about me ladies and gentlemen." Lucca turned to me. "I'll still be here next year to help with your gardens, your groceries, and I'll still be delivering your milk. That's a promise." I gave a quick thumbs up before Lucca smiled. She walked me over to the pod and I stepped up and onto the platform. After a few seconds I felt a strange feeling of being pulled apart, but not painfully so. 'This isn't so bad. I could get used to this.' Suddenly, my vision flashed blue and I saw the crowd from another angle. I felt perfectly fine, as if I had been standing there the whole time. They all stared at me and I smiled again. I raised my arms triumphantly. "Now that's the way to get around!" The crowd cheered as I stepped down. Lucca walked over and looked me over, making me smile inwardly. 'Not the way I had intended, but I'm not about to complain.' I mentally smiled wider as she patted me over slightly, smiling as she did so. She turned and raised her arms while I smiled widely.

"See folks?" She asked the crowd. "Nothing to fear, he's in one piece!" The crowd went wild as Crono looked at the pods, stepping up slowly. He was just as brave as me. "Oh, another brave volunteer." He walked up to the pod and stepped in. "Here we have Crono, the other great lad of the village. Clad in blue, wearing his signature white headband, he's the chromatic opposite of Gene, but don't be fooled, he's just as tough, just as nice, though not quite as skilled with a sword yet." Crono laughed while I stepped back into the crowd. She continued talking, but the girl interrupted my listening.

"What was it like?" She asked. I turned my head to her. She seemed very excited about it, almost literally having stars in her eyes. "It looks like fun." I smiled and nodded.

"It is." I replied. "It's a bit of a short ride, but it's really fun. One second I'm standing over there." I pointed to pod 'A'. "And I see the crowd watching. The next second." I pointed to pod 'B' exactly as Crono appeared in it. "Well, there he is, and there I was seeing the crowd from another angle." She nodded as Crono walked over.

"Wow, I want to try." She said quickly. She ran up and Lucca smiled and introduced her as a 'lovely young lady.'

"She's really energetic." Crono said quietly. He didn't talk much, but his voice was calm and deep. I simply nodded. "So how's the sword Melchior gave you?"

"Shining silver, cut's through what it needs to." I replied. "How'd you meet her?"

"Ran into her in front of the bell as it rang." He replied.

"You know, they say when two people hear that, they're destined to fall in love." I said. He nodded. "That is, if you're superstitious." He laughed as Lucca began turning on the machine.  
…

I stared at the machine, trying to see if there was something they had missed. Not that I doubted them, but I had picked up a few things watching them during my short stays. Her father had taught me a few things, and Lucca had given me some tips on making small machines. The best I could do was make a metal gauntlet with a bunch of gears to make it grip things ten times that of my natural strength. It had taken me a few weeks, but Lucca said it was amazing in its simplicity. I smiled at her words and built another, figuring maybe they could be useful for something, like climbing mountains. She had said that if I had added a locking mechanism, it could have held something in place. It was worthless for handling delicate tools, but for holding a hammer it would be perfect. With some leather covering, and adding it to some armor, it could really help a knight.

"I can't figure it out." Lucca said. "I don't know what happened, I, I just can't figure it out."

"Maybe it was because she was a girl?" Her father offered. Lucca shook her head.

"No, we tried it on me and this didn't happen." She said. I looked at the 'wires'. That was something that continued to elude me. Covering a long thread of copper, steel, or whatever metal, with red, blue, yellow, or whatever color of rubber or plastic, somehow made electricity and other stuff go into the machine, making it work the way it was supposed to. "I just can't figure this out."

"I'm the same way with these wires." I mumbled. I was rewarded with a soft thump on the top of my head. I looked up to see Lucca staring down at me. "What? I can't figure these things out. How do they really work?" She opened her mouth. "Well, maybe if I knew, I'd be able to help a little more. As it stands now, I can't figure out how a thin wire of metal that's covered with colored plastic or rubber makes a machine work." I looked at the wires. "They all look like they go to the right places, the color of the wires matches the little places you plug them into, so I guess that isn't it." She sighed and I stood up. "The only thing I can think of is that she had something on her or in her that me and Crono didn't." I looked at her. "And something you didn't have in or on you." She stared at me and then looked over to pod 'A'.

"That's it." She said. I looked and saw the pendant.

"The trinket?" I asked. She nodded quickly as Crono picked it up and looked it over. "Well, why didn't anything happen to me? I've got a pendant on and I wasn't affected." She looked at me as I pulled the Shadows of Love and Honor out from my black shirt. She looked at it and then at the one in Crono's hand.

"No, this is different." She said. "The girl's has a stone set in it, and this, this is just alchemic silver." I snapped the fingers on my right hand, pretending to remember the other one.

"I just remembered." I said.

"You have to leave?" She asked. I noticed she sounded kind of sad, so I shook my head.

"No, I mean, my pendant." I said. I pulled out the Flames of Friendship and Kindness. "I bought these from Melchior. I paid for one and he gave me this one with it." She stared at it. "I, well, he said that he makes them in pairs." I held the Flames pendant in my right hand and I moved my left to the Shadows pendant and looked at it. "He called this one the Shadows of Love and Honor. I figured, since I always wear black, it seemed fitting." She nodded as Crono put the girl's pendant on carefully. I looked at the Flames pendant. "He called this one the Flames of Friendship and Kindness. I, well, I figured that since he wouldn't take it back, I'd give it to you." She stared at me for a moment. "I mean, you know, since you have that cool 'flamethrower', and you're always so nice to me." She blushed. "I figured I'd give it to you. You're my friend, and your kind, and you love fire, so, well, yeah." She smiled as I held it out to her. She took it and looked at me.

"Um, sorry to interrupt, but, I've got an idea." Crono said. We looked at him and Lucca quickly put her necklace on, making me smile inwardly. "If this thing sent Marle, wherever it sent her, then it can send me there too right?" Lucca nodded slowly before nodding quickly.

"You're right." She said. "If we send you through, whatever that was, you can find her. If it drops the pendant again, Gene can go through, and then I'll go after he does." She turned to me. "If that's okay with you." I nodded.

"Sure." I said. "If she's in trouble, I'm obligated to help her. After all, she asked me if it was fun, and I told her it was. I encouraged her, so this is partly my fault." Crono and Lucca nodded quickly and I blushed. "Well, you didn't have to agree so quickly. I mean, I feel bad about this here. You, you could have at least waited a few seconds, like you were thinking of saying no." They laughed at my humor.


	2. Looking for a friend, what time is it?

**I hope you liked the first chapter. This was written on a whim, but I think it should turn out nicely if I get a steady stream of readers. I love the game, and I love the characters and depth put into the story.**

**Now, you can probably think that you can guess where this is going, but you'll be very surprised constantly if I'm doing my job right. Whether or not this goes up in rating is dependent on my whim, so who knows if or when it will do so.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Chrono Trigger. Square Enix does, as do they own some of the best games ever made. When you want a brilliant game, talk to Square Enix.  
…**

I stood behind Lucca, ready to hand her whatever tool she needed. The pendant went through with Crono, so she was working on a way to get us back there. We had seen some kind of blue portal open up for the girl, Marle, and Crono, so she figured she could find a way to make a small machine to mimic the effect of the amulet.

"Okay, this should do it." She said. We were at the fairgrounds and she had her portable lab table in front of her. She sat on a chair while I stood by a tray of tools, with a box of them beside that. Her father and I ran back to their house and grabbed as many tools as she said she'd need. He packed those in a wagon while I grabbed a bunch of parts and scrap metal, put it in a large burlap sack, and ran back to the village with it over my right shoulder. I then ran back to my house and grabbed both of my 'Iron Grip Gauntlets.' She figured they might be useful, so I put them in a small bag and put it on my belt. "Now, this should, in effect, act like the teleporter in terms of power requirements. And if my calculations are correct, the energy should be just enough to open the portal. It'll recharge on its own so we can reopen it later as well."

"So, you're both going through with this?" Her father asked.

"Of course." She said quickly. "I can't leave my friend, wherever he got sent to."

"And I feel obligated to help that girl." I added.

"Well, be careful." He said. "I'm counting on you to keep my little girl safe Gene." I nodded and patted the sword on my left hip.

"Dad, stop worrying about me so much." She said with a blush. "I'm old enough to take care of myself." She grabbed another item from the table, along with a bag of metal pellets. "Besides, I've got this. It may not look like much, but not many monsters around here can stand a single shot from my Air Pistol."

"And with Melchior's sword, I can take care of anything while she reloads." I said.  
…

I landed in a kneeling position with my right hand on the ground, my left holding the scabbard for my sword. Lucca landed on her backside, her gun sliding a few feet from her.

"Ow." She complained. I stood up and looked around. "Where are we?" I noticed that the trees seemed the same, but there was no sign of the festival grounds.

"This forest seems familiar." I said. Three small green creatures with oddly shaped heads jumped out. They put their fingers in their mouths and pulled them wide, sticking their tongues out at us while growling. "What the hell? Imps?" I drew my sword and they all froze as they were, staring at the blade. "Go away you little pests. We have no time for you."

"Foolish humans." One of them said. Lucca stood up after hastily grabbing her pistol. She pointed it at one of them and quickly sidestepped over to my right shoulder. She seemed a bit worried. "You cannot defeat us! We will destroy you!" I smiled and held the blade high. I swung it down and the imp was suddenly split in two. "Yah!"

"Whoa." Lucca said quietly. "How did you do that?"

"A simple technique." I replied. I raised the sword and the two Imps gasped and huddled together in fear. "I can split them both in half now."

"Wait, what do you humans want?" The Imp on the right asked. "Maybe we can get it for you."

"Gene, maybe they can tell us where Crono is." Lucca said quietly. I nodded. "Um, why, why don't you talk to them? I, I think you've got the upper hand when scaring them." I nodded again.

"A boy may have come by here earlier." I said as I lowered the sword. "He wore a blue outfit with a white headband. He carries a wooden sword, and his hair is red." The Imps looked at each other and talked quietly for a moment.

"Yeah, we saw a human like that." The left Imp said. "He cut down a lot of our guys before he left."

"He said something about a girl in white clothes with yellow hair." The right Imp said. "He ran out of the forest about six, maybe seven hours ago." I nodded slowly. "Um, he, he uh, he said her name was, Merle?"

"Mail?" The other said.

"Marle." I corrected. I put the sword away and they sighed. "Now, you will not bother any people from now on." They nodded quickly. "Now, go away." They ran off quickly, far faster than any Imps I'd ever seen before.

"Wow, you're very persuasive." Lucca said. I nodded. "So, where do we go now?"

"I guess we leave the forest and get a map of the area." I said. "We need to figure out where we are, and where Crono went. He'll have found where Marle is by now, I'm certain." She nodded and looked toward a path. I mentally smiled. This was the longest time I'd ever been near her, and what was more, she wore the pendant I gave her.  
…

We walked into the room and it went quiet for a moment. I looked around, trying to look tough. I stepped in while Lucca followed nervously. I walked up to the bar and the bartender stared at me.

"You know." A male voice said. I turned my head toward the person. "You the third and fourth people wearing such strange clothes to come by here today I reckon." I turned fully to him and he drank from a mug. "Some boy, had uh, red hair and weird blue clothes, had a wooden sword with him. He came in and asked if we'd seen a girl with blond hair. You lookin' for either o' them?"

"Yes." Lucca said. I held up my right hand.

"You don't seem the type to give out information for free." I said. He smiled. "My guess, you made the boy pay before you told him where the girl is." He nodded. "And you're probably expecting us to do the same." Lucca gulped behind me while I fingered the hilt of my sword. "Well, we don't really have time for games, so why don't you cut to the chase and name your price?"

"Ten Gil." He said. I reached into my right pocket and fished out twenty coins for the expected word. "Each." I nodded and set the coins on the table in front of him. "He's gone to the castle to the west of here. Odds are he's dead though, monsters in the forest this year are particularly fierce. I don't expect either of you to even make it up to his body." He smiled as he reached for the coins. I quickly grabbed them and he growled.

"That's good to know." I said smugly. He reached for a knife on his belt and I tapped the hilt of my blade. He stared at it. "This is a silver blade, worth far more than your life." I put the coins away and pulled out the silver ticket pouch. I tossed it to him and he stared at it. "Use those as you see fit."  
…

"Wow, I can't believe you did that." Lucca said. I noticed a hint of both respect and awe in her voice. "I, I never would have been able to do something like that. You're really brave." I smiled.

"Well, it's not really that hard to act tough." I said. I turned my head to look at her as we approached the castle. "It's a confidence thing. If you don't think you can do it, don't try. If you think you can, don't try."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Thinking and believing something are two totally different things." I explained. "If you think you can do something, you're not totally committed to it, and that means you have doubts as to what you can really do." She nodded. "But, if you believe that you can do it, then you can do it. I believed that he wouldn't be brave enough to try to take my gold if I took it back, so I took it back. I believed that he was afraid of my sword."

"And he was." She said. "I understand. I think." I smiled.

"It's my way." I said. "I believe that I will become a swordsman that my father would have been proud to fight beside, and that any other would have felt honored just by seeing me fight. That is one of my dreams, and I plan to make that dream come true one day."

"What are your other dreams?" Lucca asked. She blushed as I stared at her. "I mean, if you don't mind sharing." I shrugged and looked ahead to the castle.

"Well, maybe I'll talk about that some day." I said. "But for now, I think we should focus on our task."  
…

I stood in front of the guards while Lucca ran to find Crono.

"Look, we're just here to talk to our friend." I said as I blocked another sword. I pushed him aside and jumped back slightly and blocked yet another blade directed at me. "The boy with the wooden sword, red hair, and blue clothes is the one I speak of!" I stepped back and dodged several swords.

"How do you know him?" The captain of the guards asked. "If he was your friend, you wouldn't allow him to travel alone with just a wooden sword."

"He came here before we did." I said. "He was ready, but we had supplies to gather." I stepped back as he stepped closer, his men stopping and watching. "All I ask is that you allow us to explain what is going on. Once we've finished what we came here to do, we'll be out of your hair for a good long while." He stepped closer and the door behind me opened. I heard a sharp intake of breath.

"Wh, what's going on here?" Lucca asked.

"That's what I'd like to ask you Lucca." I said. "What's happened?"

"Marle, she, she's gone." She replied. "She was actually Princess Nadia, and she was mistaken for the queen."

"What?" The captain asked. I stood up slightly, but I maintained my readiness in case he would attack. "We did no such thing. She was found at the forest to the north of the village."

"Look, it's a long story, but we're travelers from, far away." Lucca said quickly. "And your queen is in danger, as is our friend. We need to save the queen to save her, so you must let us go to find her." The man thought for a moment as I readied my blade. If I had to, I would cast him aside without killing him.

"Where would our queen be if she is not in her room?" He asked.

"She, she might be in another forest, to the southwest of here." Lucca replied. The guards looked to their captain. "That would be the most likely place. She might have been kidnapped by monsters." The captain seemed to nod in realization.

"I shall rally a squad to assault the forest." He said. "I have recently gained the knowledge that there is a strange cathedral in the forest. I have always wondered about it, as anyone who goes in disappears. I had thought it random monster attacks, but with the queen's life at stake, I must consider that the monsters are the ones in charge of it." I slowly returned my blade to the sky blue scabbard. "However, I would ask that you go ahead of us." Lucca and Crono walked up beside me. "Crono, you were a friend of this, this girl that looks like our queen." He nodded. "I have heard that you defeated a large number of monsters, using only that wooden sword." Crono nodded again as the captain snapped his fingers. A man ran up the stairs after a few moments with a sword in his left hand, a saber. "Take this blade to rescue the queen. The monsters that likely inhabit that cathedral are more powerful than the ones in the eastern forest." The man walked up to Crono and handed him the blade. The captain pointed at me. "You, what are your names? If you bested my knights, you are surely a great swordsman. And the girl is clearly a seer."

"A, a seer?" Lucca whispered.

"I am Gene Milliardo Alastor." I replied calmly. I gestured to Lucca. "And this is my friend Lucca, a brilliant inventor. She is by no means a seer, but she has remarkable insight." I knew she was blushing.

"Well, Milliardo, I would have you take a message to the queen." The captain said. "Tell her that we are gravely sorry that we mistook a common girl for her." I nodded. "And before you leave, visit our armory to acquire some decent armor. Your cloth and hide attire may have saved you from the Imps of the forest, but there is talk of snakes, Naga, and any other host of foul beings that can easily rend you all apart." I nodded simply.  
…

"Man, I can't believe this." Lucca said. Crono nodded as he put the metal armor on. "I mean, we're four hundred years in the past. We're rescuing Queen Leene from monsters. That means that we might be the heroes from the history books." I nodded as I pulled on a pair of leather gloves. I had leather shoes on over my slippers and a suit of thin leather armor over my shirt. A pair of leather shin guards and thigh guards protected my legs, and a simple leather cap protected my head. "Uh, why are you wearing that? They've got bronze armor, and even iron if you want it."

"I prefer freedom of movement over defense." I replied. I flexed my fingers slowly, getting used to the material. "Armor has no purpose if the enemy cannot hit you. My father never wore anything heavier or more restrictive than leather, so I strive to do no less than he." Lucca nodded slowly.

"Um, you, you never told me that your father was Milliardo Alastor." She said. I shrugged.

"You never asked." I replied. "I figured that you knew." She shook her head while tying off her thin bronze helmet. She wore a light suit of bronze, which was the best she could manage. She wasn't physically strong, so she could only carry the bronze armor, but just barely. Crono had a suit of iron as well as the helmet to go with it. He truly looked like a knight of old. "Now, we know where we must go. All that remains after we're ready is getting there."

"Right." Lucca said. "I just hope we can handle this. I mean, if we don't get there in time, the queen is all but done for."  
…

I jumped back as the creature bit at me. There were four in all, and they were monsters I'd never seen.

"What are these things?" I called. "I've never found them in the forests before in our time."

"They're female Naga." Lucca said. "They're really annoying, but they aren't really that strong." I swung my blade as two of them slithered at me, one behind the other. They were split in half while Lucca shot one through the torso. Crono spun rapidly at one and sliced it into pieces that fell to the floor. "And that takes care of them." I nodded and sheathed my blade. Crono had found a coral hairpin that belonged to the queen. That meant that she was indeed at the cathedral.

"What do we do now?" I asked. "We have no idea where to go from here." Lucca turned from the body of the creature, but it suddenly rose up and struck her. I caught her as Crono readied his new bronze sword. "Lucca, are you okay?" From seemingly nowhere, a tall frog in armor landed by the Naga. He sliced her in half and turned to us as he sheathed his broadsword.

"If you lower your guard you invite the enemy in." He said calmly. Lucca quickly scrambled to stand up, the injury on her back clearly not troubling her. I stood up with her and she hid behind me. She was deathly afraid of anything with slimy or moist skin. "Are you all okay?"

"G, Gene, it's a talking FROG." Lucca said quietly. I nodded.

"Thank you for your assistance." I said.

"'twas nothing." He said. He pulled out a hat from nowhere and held it to his side with a smile. He dropped the smile and put the hat behind him, adopting a serious look. "The queen is further within this terrible place. Would you allow me to help you in finding her?" He stepped forward and Lucca cringed, making me nervous as she clung tightly to my back. "I see. I suppose I should not be surprised that you do not trust me. Very well, I shall find her myself." He began to walk away when Lucca stepped out.

"Wait." She said. He looked at her and she seemed somewhat nervous. "You don't seem, like a bad frog, I mean, person." She looked at me. "What do you think Gene, uh, I mean, Milliardo? Should we let him help us?" I nodded.

"You're a skilled warrior." I said to the frog. "What is your name?" He seemed in thought for a moment.

"Frog will do for now." He said. He smiled. "I thank you for trusting me."

"I guess, I guess I can, try to get over my aversion to slimy, I mean, moist skinned creatures." Lucca said. "I hope."


	3. Still searching, I hate time travel

**It's a good week so far. Good games coming out, plenty of things to do, and I've overall been feeling okay. But with the good comes the bad I'm afraid. I have to take a bit of time off to rest my mind, let things cool down. I've been running myself a little too hard, so I need to chill out and just relax for a while. I'll be at least two weeks, but maybe a month. I'm not even posting until then, save this week. So, next post should be in December at the earliest.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Chrono Trigger. Square Enix does, and they did a great job of it.  
…**

I walked along ahead of the group. The others suggested it be me that lead us through the cathedral since I figured out that the pipe organ opened a secret passage. We walked along calmly, occasionally slaying the monsters that attacked us. I would slice them at a distance, Lucca would shoot them with her pistol or use her flamethrower on them, Frog would reel them in with his tongue before cutting them in half, and Crono surprised me by slashing hard along the ground and creating a shockwave that would kill the smaller monsters. We came upon another organ and I played the tune, and we opened another path.

"Wow, this place is big." Lucca said. I nodded. "Why would monsters build a place like this?"

"I believe that they built this cathedral to lure in humans to devour." Frog said. Lucca shuddered behind me, I was sure of it. "I believe we are getting close. The outside of this cathedral wasn't too big. I think after this door ahead of us, there should be one long path, which should lead to the final room."

"Then we should be on our guard." I said. "After all, it's usually when you believe you are on the final stretch that the ground falls out from under your feet." They all nodded.  
…

"You will pay for this you filthy humans!" The monster yelled. He was called Yakra, and he was pretty mad for our interrupting his plan to kill the queen. We drew our weapons and I cracked my neck. His skin looked pretty thick, but I trusted my sword.

"I believe that it is you that shall pay Yakra." Frog said.

"And we're here to collect." I added with a smirk. The first thing we did was split up, so that he couldn't hit us all at once, and to divide his attention. 'Time to test out the other trick I've been saving.' I ran forward quickly, as did Frog. Crono used his 'Wind Slash' attack. I ran to one side after the attack connected, Frog ran to the other, and we slashed from two directions, making a large 'X' over Yakra. I jumped back, as did Frog. 'Wow, this thing is strong.' Yakra bellowed and ran at me faster than I'd expected. I jumped on top of him and off behind him as he crashed into the wall behind me. "You're pretty quick for a big guy Yakra. I'll give you that much." I turned as he spun about. He roared and Lucca hit him with her flamethrower. He was covered in the flames and he bellowed again.

"Okay, let's finish this!" Frog yelled. He ran forward while Crono followed.

"Lucca, I have a plan." I called. She looked at me as I returned the blade to the scabbard. "I'll slash him, and then you use the flamethrower on the count of three." She nodded. "One." She pulled out the device as Crono and Frog neared a now flameless Yakra. "Two." I leaned forward, and the other swordsmen slashed the beast and retreated. Yakra stared at me with a look of pain and horror, his left eye wrenched shut in pain. "Three!" I slashed quickly and Lucca fired the flames. The slash I used created a vacuum, which pulled her attack into a jet stream behind it, accelerating it as the slash connected. Yakra roared in pain as he was engulfed in flames again. He stood up on his hind legs and began vanishing. "And that's what you get for kidnapping a Queen."  
…

I stood outside the doors to the castle. I didn't feel like going inside, mostly because I felt nervous in there. Royalty wasn't my favorite atmosphere; it was something I didn't like from when I was a child. I looked out into the forest just beyond the castle gates and saw a few birds taking to the skies when the door opened. Frog walked out, looking troubled. He looked at me and then began walking.

"I thank you for helping me rescue the queen Milliardo." He said. I nodded.

"We couldn't have done it without you." I noted. He shook his head.

"If I had only seen that the other girl was not the queen." He said. "We would not have had to go through all the trouble. I failed to protect her when she first was in danger."

"You can't always do everything right." I said. "Sometimes you're going to make a mistake, and you can't ever know when that's going to happen. Sometimes, you've just got to let it go when you make a mistake, and then you try to fix it. Perfection is an illusion, but you'll always have your best." He smiled slightly, but did not turn to me.

"Thank you for your kind words." He said.  
…

I stretched my back as we walked out of the portal. The princess just wanted us to call her Marle, not Nadia. I had no problem with that. She was very friendly, and she quickly befriended Lucca, and she had become a friend of Crono's before the incident. I on the other hand simply stayed quiet around her, and she didn't show too much of an interest in me.

"That was interesting." Lucca said. I nodded as Crono and Marle walked ahead of us. He would take her back to the castle while Lucca and I walked to our homes. "It's amazing don't you think? We're the heroes that saved Queen Leene, and we managed to help Princess Nadia."

"It's certainly something worth treasuring." I said. "Even though we can never really tell anyone about it."

"Why can't we?" She asked.

"Who'd believe us?" I retorted. "I can see the look on my mother's face right now. I tell her that you, Crono, and I went four hundred years into the past to save the princess, and we ended up meeting a talking frog swordsman, killed a lot of monsters, including one that planned to kill a queen, thus saving the princess from a fate worse than death, and then we came back through a time portal." She nodded. "I went through it and _I _still have a tough time believing it." She smiled. "Time travel, I've had enough of _that_ for a while. You, Crono, and I are heroes, but we will never be known in the history books for what we have done. In fact, there is the distinct possibility that we could have changed history just going back there." She nodded again. "But hey, we saved the princess, we saved a queen, and we saved the whole kingdom, and all we meant to do was bring the princess back here. All in all, I call this a memory that I'll one day look back on with pride."

"Yeah, I'd like to have some children one day I could tell this story to." She said. "And maybe even a few grandchildren some day."  
…

I swung my sword at the training dummy again. It had been a day since we returned and my mother didn't even question where I got my leather armor from. I still wore my father's clothes, figuring I was now worthy to do so daily. After saving a queen, I'm sure my father would have agreed.

'Okay, let's see if I can cut this thing in half this time.' I thought. I swung the blade as hard as I could and the dummy stood there for a second before a diagonal line appeared. The top half slid off and I smiled before returning the blade to the scabbard. "Okay, I think I've finally got it." My smile wasn't for finally slicing the dummy; it was for the fact that I could see the wind from the slice. There was a distortion, a small amount of light that could be seen briefly as the sword was swung, as well as a shadow just as it connected.

"Milliardo!" Lucca's voice called. I turned to see her running toward me. "Something bad has happened." She ran up to me and held out a newspaper as she panted. She wore the bronze armor and her weapons were at her sides. I took the paper. When I read the headline I felt some of the color leaving my face. "This isn't good. Somebody must have rigged the jury at Crono's trial. We have to do something."

"What do you think we can do?" I asked. "How would we even get in? The prison is heavily guarded, and he's considered a kidnapper and a seditionist."

"I found a building plan, and I found a secret way in, past the main gate." She said. "With my weapons and your skills, we can get in, and rescue him, and get out before we cause too much trouble. But I can't do this alone. If there are a lot of guards, I'll be captured, and then I'll be in the same boat, just like you would be if you tried this alone." She seemed to be in thought. "Well, maybe you could do it alone." She shook her head. "But I'd rather help." I nodded.

"I just need to say something to my mom." I said. "We probably won't be coming back anytime soon, so I want my mom to know I'm just heading out. Whatever they put in the paper, she'll think I'm just out, doing something else." She nodded.  
…

I walked down the stairs after Lucca. She had knocked out a guard and he fell down the stairs. When I reached the bottom I saw her talking to Crono.

"Well, it would seem that you didn't need our help after all." I said. Crono looked at me while Lucca picked up a piece of paper. "Oh well, it's the thought that counts right?"

"We should hurry." Lucca said quickly. "This paper, they've built something called a 'Dragon Tank'. I don't want to be here when they bring it out." Crono and I nodded as he ran up the stairs. Lucca went after him and I followed her. We ran out onto a bridge and a large red machine rolled in front of us. "Oh no, that's it, that's the Dragon Tank." A man ran out and let out a triumphant laugh.

"Okay, it looks like we have two more seditionists trying to break out their leader." He said. "Kill them all! Kill them for treason and sedition that they are so obviously guilty of!" He ran back as the mouth of the Dragon head opened.

'Oh man.' I thought. "There's not a lot of room to dodge here. If that thing attacks, we don't have anywhere to go."

"The paper said it's really tough, but we can still beat it." Lucca said. "The head has some kind of self repair mechanism, but if we destroy the wheels, then the head, and then the body, I think we can win."

"Cripple it, behead it, and destroy the body." I said. "Got it." I ran forward as I drew my sword. Lucca and Crono readied their weapons as I jumped up. "I'll take the head. You two handle the wheels."  
…

We ran into the main foyer after having destroyed the tank. The Chancellor and two of his aides had tried to keep the body from exploding, but they were too late. They'd formed a makeshift bridge while trying to avoid falling to the ground far below. I could have sworn I saw a smile on Crono's face when we walked along their backs.

"That's them, stop them!" A man yelled.

"Let's go!" Lucca said quickly. We ran until we were cornered by the door. We began readying our weapons when I saw a girl in a green dress.

"Stop this at once!" She called. The men all turned and dropped to their knees. "You would dare try to harm my friends?"

"But, Princess Nadia, we have orders from the Chancellor." One of the men said.

"You would disobey me?" The princess asked.

"N, no princess, but." The man started.

"Silence!" A loud male voice called. Nadia turned and I saw the king.

"Oh no, not this guy." I said in a low voice. The king began talking to the princess and I backed to the door.

"Stop right there Milliardo." The king commanded.

"Busted." I said quietly. "Yes, your majesty?"

"Milliardo?" Lucca asked. "You know the king?"

"I, uh, well." I said, rubbing the back of my head with my right hand. "I'm, kind of, his nephew."

"Yes, you are." The king said. Lucca just stared at me. "And I have been searching high and low for you for the past fifteen years. Your father would have wanted you to live as you were meant to had he not abandoned his royal duties. Come here, now."

"Sorry Uncle, but I can't do that." I said. "I've got to protect my friends right now, and you're not exactly helping with that."

"Milliardo Casvall Guardia, you will come here this instant, and you will become a prince." The king ordered.

"Milliardo, Casvall, Guardia?" Lucca asked. I blushed.

"I'm not exactly proud of my heritage." I said. "Can I tell you about that later? I don't think this is the best time for talking."  
…

We ran through the forest with the Chancellor only a short distance behind us. Marle had joined us as we escaped. I was at the back of the group, keeping an eye on the people behind us. We ran into a dead end and I instantly began trying to think of a way out that didn't involve killing them. I spotted a familiar blue distortion and I pointed to it.

"A gate." I said. "Can we use it?"

"I think so, but is this really the best idea?" Lucca said.

"I don't think we have any other options at this point." Marle said. "We're pretty much trapped, and I have no intention of going back to the castle anytime soon."

"Nor do I." I said.

"Well, it looks like we're leaving." Lucca said.

"You're not going anywhere." The Chancellor said. "Milliardo, you and the princess are coming with us, and your little friends are going to face the guillotine."

"Sorry, but you seem to have us confused with some other people." I said. Lucca held the Gate Key out to me, and I took it and pointed it at the Gate. "Those people, couldn't do this." The Gate opened and we all ran in. "See you around Chancellor!"  
…

I landed on my knee again, but this time it was on a hard metal surface. Lucca landed to my right, again on her butt. Marle and Crono landed on their feet and looked around as I stood up.

"Every time we go through a gate, I end up on my butt." Lucca complained. She stood up and rubbed her bottom while I looked about. "Where, er, when, are we? This doesn't look like the past."

"Therefore, we must be in the future." I mused. She nodded. "Well, whenever this is, wherever it is, I think we should look for another Gate that can take us back home, or somewhere close to it."


	4. This is the future? What happened?

**Happy holidays everyone, and welcome to chapter four of Chrono Chaos. I hope you're liking it, because this is one of my personal favorites of 2009. This is not to say I'm coming off of my vacation though. Sorry, but this Ice Demon is going to finish the winter off before he comes back. Maybe. I may be back by February, though that's not a guarantee. What is a guarantee though, is the disclaimer.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Chrono Trigger, and I am thanking goodness I don't, because only Square Enix could possibly have done it right. They make the best RPG games out there, and that's no lie. They are the best, bar none, all hail Square Enix, please don't sue me. The most you could get was my help for dialogue with a new FF character. Which I would probably do for a very good price.  
…**

We walked for a good hour and a half before we made it to a safe place, one with people. It was a dreary time, and it was the year two thousand and three hundred, so we were a long way from home. We walked into the building, a large dome, and we found that there was no food, but there were machines that let us get a full night's worth of sleep in a few seconds.

"Travelers." A child said. Everyone stood up and gathered around us.

"Did you come from the other dome?" A man asked. "You passed through the ruins, so you must have come from the other dome." We nodded. "Is there any food there? I fear we cannot last much longer here."

"No, there isn't any sign of food anywhere." Lucca said. The people all lowered their heads. "You mean, there's no food here either?" One man came forward and shook his head.

"There is food, but we cannot get to it." He said. He gestured to a ladder. "The food is down there, but we cannot get in, though many have tried. There is no way for us to get through."

"We can get it." Marle said. The man stared. "We've made it through the ruins, so we should be able to get to the food."

"You'd do that for us?" The man asked. "Thank you. I'd all but given up on ever seeing food again."  
…

I walked along the thin beam with my hands in my pockets while the others took their time. I looked over my shoulder and I noticed the distance between us. I was over halfway to the other side and they were still near the beginning, and Lucca was clinging to the beam, crawling, while Marle was holding onto Crono as they moved cautiously. I shook my head, but remembered that I'd trained my balance on thin wires as opposed to the metal beams I now walked on. I walked back at a fairly brisk pace and they all watched me. I stepped onto a small part and jumped over to Lucca easily. She looked up at me as I crouched down to her.

"Would you like some help?" I asked. She looked at the beam and tried to push herself up. I held out my right hand and she slowly took it. I stood up slowly and she followed. I turned and crouched. "Climb aboard."

"I, I couldn't." She said.

"Don't worry; I won't mind any extra weight." I said. "I delivered milk among both villages before sunrise, and I wore a large set of weights on my back, arms, and legs. I trained for speed with a total of two hundred pounds, and still I managed to deliver forty bottles of milk per day before the sun would rise each day."

"Are you sure?" She asked.

"I am, Lucca." I said. "If I can deliver forty bottles of milk in less than three hours each morning with two hundred pounds, I am sure I can balance on these beams while carrying you." She climbed onto my back as Marle and Crono watched me. She put her arms around my neck and I moved my arms to hold her ankles. "Hold on." I looked at Crono and Marle. "We'll go on ahead."

"What do you mean by that?" Lucca asked.

"Hang on." I said. I crouched and jumped ahead of Marle and Crono. Lucca yelped as I began jogging. "This isn't like my training, but it's not bad. I might start a transportation service." She laughed nervously as I turned a corner. "I trained for balance on my mother's clothesline, and then I set up a thinner one made of yarn."

"So, this doesn't bother you?" She asked nervously.

"Not in the least." I replied. "This may as well be a dirt road to me."  
…

I stared around the room. We all felt like it was too easy to get into the room, even though the others had a difficult time of getting in.

"If it was that easy to get in, why did they have such a hard time?" Lucca asked. "They didn't look like they had vision problems, and despite how hungry they must be, I can't see any problems getting over here. They could even try to make it so that they have a wider path somehow, it wouldn't be very hard, even if it would take some time."

"Something tells me something else is in here that keeps them from getting to the food." I mused. I walked toward the door and a large machine dropped from the ceiling, along with a pair of round machines.

"INTRUDER DETECTED." A strange female voice said. "SECURITY PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED." One of the round machines eyes glowed and a bright yellow light was shot at me in a straight line. I jumped back and it scorched the ground. "RECALIBRATING TARGETING SENSORS."

"What is that thing?" Marle asked.

"It's some kind of security machine." Lucca said. "This must be what's keeping those people out of the food storage. We'll have to find a way of shutting it down." I drew my sword and prepared to fight it. "Milliardo? What are you doing? There's no way we can beat that thing."

"We won't know unless we try." I said. "Besides, these things don't look even half as tough as Gato." Crono drew his sword and Marle produced a crossbow.

"He's right Lucca." She said. "You guys beat the Dragon Tank, and that Yakra thing, and who knows how many other monsters. I'm not half bad at fighting myself, so we can take this thing."

"Okay, if you think so." Lucca said. I jumped forward and sliced one of the round ones in half while Marle shot the big one. Crono had sliced the other one in half as Lucca pulled out her flamethrower. "Heads up!" She loosed the stream of fire and the machine just sat there.

"Why doesn't this one attack?" Marle asked.

"It must be dependent on the other two for any fighting." Lucca said. "But I don't think it has just two. It's too easy to destroy them. Keep hitting the big one before any other small ones appear."

"Too late." I said. Four more dropped from the ceiling and I ran up to the closest one while the big one burned. "We are getting to that food, and we shall not be stopped!"  
…

We walked into the food storage room. It had taken the better part of ten minutes of nonstop fighting to destroy the machine. In the end, it was Lucca that destroyed it. She ran up to it after running out of pellets and she smashed the 'camera' with her hammer. At a closer look, it had a bunch of wires in it.

"I still don't get how wires make a machine work." I said. "I just can't grasp it."

"I'll explain it later Milliardo, but for now, what is that horrible odor?" Lucca asked. I walked forward as they looked over the crates. The food had gone rotten. "It looks like the refrigeration unit failed some time ago." I walked up to a dead body and knelt by it. I moved my right hand to my leather cap and removed it. "Milliardo, what's wrong?"

"This man seems to have made it past the security." I said. "And, I'm afraid that he made the same discovery that we did, but he didn't have the luxury of that security monstrosity being destroyed."

"You, you mean he's?" Marle asked. I spotted a single seed in the man's left hand, and a note in his right. I took them and looked at the note. "What's that?"

"A seed and a note." I said. I handed her the seed. "I think that the seed might still be able to be planted." She nodded. "It's probably the only one left, so I think we should tell them to be careful."

"What does the note say?" Lucca asked. I looked at it. It was written in the man's blood.

"It doesn't make sense." I said. "It says 'the password is S16M4'."

"Hey, that terminal we found before we got to the beams." Marle said. "When you tried it, didn't it ask for a password?" I nodded.

"I guess that must be it." I said. "I suppose all we can do is try it." I looked at the note and then at the body. I saw a single injury, where his right lung was. It wasn't big, but I guessed it had pierced his lung, and those wounds brought an agonizing death, and he must have written using blood from that wound. His eyes were still open. "This guy came down here to find food, only to find one seed, and his death." I moved my right hand to his face and closed his eyes. "Let's make sure his sacrifice isn't in vain. We'll give the others the seed, and then we leave it to fate and hope that they can find a good future with it."

"Yeah." Lucca said. "All we can do is hope that the future turns good for them."  
…

We watched a strange recording of a creature that rained destruction on the surface of the world. It was labeled 'Lavos' and it was massive and terrible looking. Spikes adorned a huge shell and it had a horrible looking mouth, and it rained what looked like lines of fire into the sky in every direction, which came down and destroyed much of the surface.

"Oh my, this, this is." Lucca said quietly.

"It, it, it's." Marle said. Crono just stared.

"It's the single most horrifying thing I've ever seen." I said. They all nodded. "Something like that, it should be stopped."

"And, we're just the ones who can do it." Marle said. We all looked at her. "Well, we can travel through time. With the Gates, and the Key, we can try to find out where it first comes into existence, and we can stop it. We can stop this." We all thought about it.

'She's right.' I thought. 'With the Gates and the Gate Key, we can go wherever, and whenever we need to go. If we play our cards right, we can go back to when that thing, Lavos, was first created, we can stop it just by stopping the person that made it. We, we could save the whole world, nay, the future of this world and generations to come.' I looked at the screen that showed us the monster. 'My father would have done it. He would have done everything in his power to find and stop Lavos from ever being made. Therefore, I must strive to do no less, and I shall find the man, woman, or whatever, responsible for that thing and I will stop this future from coming about.' I saw that the others had come to the same conclusion, if using different reasoning and words. "I'm in." Marle smiled. "I'd do this alone if I had to, because that's what my dad would have done. He wouldn't stop until he found out who or what made Lavos. Something that can do this must be stopped."

"You're right Milliardo." Lucca said. "We have the means to stop Lavos, so we have to. If we don't, we'd just as good as unleashed Lavos ourselves."

"Crono, what about you?" Marle asked. He nodded. He wasn't one for words very often. "Okay, that settles it. We're going to stop Lavos. Let's go, we need to get to 'Proto Dome', and we need to find out if anyone knows anything about Lavos." Crono nodded and they walked out.

"Milliardo?" Lucca asked when they had left.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Um, you, you're doing this because your father would have?" She asked. I nodded. "So, if your father wouldn't have, you'd just go home?"

"No." I said. "My father would have stopped it, but that isn't why I'm going to." She leaned in. "I know that this future isn't right, and we might be able to put it right, and that means we have to try. I could never forgive myself if I didn't at least try to save the people of the future. I know that millions of people must have died when that thing came out of the ground that day, and we might be able to stop it, so we have to." She nodded. "And Lucca, you don't have to call me Milliardo. You can call me Gene, and in fact, I'd prefer you do." She nodded again.

"Okay." She said. "Let's go, before the others get too far ahead of us."  
…

We had given a man named Doan the seed, and the others in the Dome had promised to take care of it and use it to build a better future. He had given us the keys to something called an Airbike, telling us it would help us get through the ruins ahead of us. We ran up to the bike when a bunch of machines came out of the rubble, six in all. We all readied our weapons, but they didn't attack. A seventh machine came out, with wheels and strange objects on the back that emitted smoke. He challenged us to a race, but none of us knew how to drive the large Airbike before us.

"It's simple my brothers and sisters." He said. He called himself 'Johnny'. "You, my white haired brother in the black suit, come over here and I'll show you. You look like you can handle this baby." I walked forward, confused as to why he referred to us as if we were family. He gestured for me to look into the vehicle. "You see those pedals down there?" I nodded. "The one on the far right is the accelerator, which makes it go. It starts up when you put the key in this." He put his hand on a small opening. "Just like a door." I nodded. "Put the key in and turn it to the right and the Airbike will rise a few feet off of the ground. Then you put your right foot on the right pedal, but put your left foot all the way to the left. You'll only need your right foot." I nodded again. "The pedal to the immediate left is the brake, and that slows it down and stops it if you hold your foot on it." He pointed to a single handle in front of the seat on the right side. There was a red button on top of it. "This is the control stick." He grabbed it and turned it to the right. "Turn it right to make the Airbike go right, but do it slow or you'll turn it and likely crash. Turn it left to make it go left. Press the red button for a speed boost, but only hold it down for a few seconds or so, or the engine might not be able to handle it." He looked at me as he leaned back. "Do you understand?"

"I believe I do." I said. I saw Lucca gulp. "Okay Johnny, you've got yourself a race." I held out my right hand. "Good luck, brother." He smiled and took my hand.

"Same to you bro."He said. "You're gonna need it. Oh, and you see that thing in the middle of the dash?" He pointed to a strange device and I nodded. "That plays music. Press the sideways triangle to start it, and press the square to stop it. It's got some good tunes, and they'll get you fired up." I nodded and jumped in, and the others followed. He changed into a three wheeled vehicle and made a loud noise. I put the key in and turned it, and the Airbike made a sound louder than any monster roar I'd ever heard, but it somehow brought a smile to my face as it rose into the air a few feet. "How do you like it?"

"I feel good." I said. I put my hand gently on the handle and turned it left to right. I looked behind me to see a pair of fins turning with it, likely to divert the flow of air to make the machine turn. I looked ahead and spotted a pair of goggles on the 'dashboard'. I picked them up and put them over my eyes. "Let's get this party started."  
…

Lucca and the others stepped out of the Airbike unsteadily while I smiled, putting the goggles back while Johnny rolled up slowly, looking defeated. He changed back to his more human looking form.

"Man, nobody's ever beaten me before." He said. He looked at me with a smile of respect. "You're pretty good considering you've never driven before." I smiled as he held out his right hand. I took it in my own while the others watched. "We'll have to do this again sometime. I had a great time racing you. What's your name?"

"Gene." I replied. "Gene Alastor." He smiled wider.

"I think I'll call you 'Full Tilt' Gene." He said. "How's that grab you?" I smiled. I kind of liked it. Full tilt meant giving it your all in a race, going all out trying to win.

"I like it." I said. "I'll be sure to come back someday to race you again, bro." He smiled and gripped my hand slightly.

"I'll hold you to that." He said. "Nobody's ever beaten me before, and I aim to win next time." He gave me a competitive grin, which I returned with a lean-in.


	5. What? A robot? Does it work?

**Back from vacation and ready to go, here is chapter five of Chrono Chaos. Things are getting good aren't they? Well, maybe, maybe not. I'm working on it though. Adding an OC makes things very difficult and technically constitutes an AU. And those are tough to work with. I'm augmenting the whole of Chrono Trigger's universe to account for a whole new character, so bear with me. You know, I like the game, and it was great. It was great for it's time, and it was remade twice. That's gotta say something about how good it was, to be remade for the old Playstation, and then to be made for the DS. It's nothing short of beautiful in my opinion.**

**Disclaimer: I, Lord Genesis Shadow, do not own the rights to Chrono Trigger. Or any game from Square Enix, who tend to make games with unreal amounts of replayability. Square Enix, you have my eternal gratitude for making such wonderful games, and for not suing me.  
…**

We walked into Proto Dome and looked around carefully. We found an Enertron, the machine that gave us a full night's sleep in seconds. We each used it, one after another, before continuing. We walked into a room and a strange machine was sitting on the ground, clearly damaged and left alone for what seemed like many years. A bunch of large rats scampered away as we entered the room.

"What is that?" Marle asked. Lucca smiled as we walked up to it. She opened her portable tool kit on her belt and I went to retrieve my own. I wasn't a total braincase but I wasn't an idiot when it came to machines. Hanging around Lucca and her father allowed me to learn a great deal about machinery. "It looks kind of like Johnny, but bigger, and without wheels."

"It is a machine, but it might be a more advanced model." Lucca said. She walked up to it and began looking it over. "I'm sure that I can repair it, especially if Gene helps me." I nodded and knelt by the machine, spotting a hatch with screws holding it in place. They were big, but I had my large screwdrivers for just such a situation, providing that the situation was helping Lucca build something big.

"It looks like it'll take a while, but I believe it would be worthwhile to repair him." I said.  
…

Two days of work paid off. Lucca and I had managed to repair the robot and bring him to a standby readiness.

"Okay, we're ready to start him up." Lucca said. I stood with a smile and crossed arms.

"Wait, what if he attacks like the others?" Marle asked. "Johnny and his gang excluded, not one robot has failed to attack us on sight."

"Robots aren't bad Marle." Lucca said. "They're only bad when people make them that way. I've made some adjustments to his programming so that he'll be friendly toward us and any other people we might meet with him." Marle nodded as Lucca activated him. His eyes lit up bright green. He turned his head to the left and right before settling his eyes on me.

"What happened?" He asked. His voice was much more developed than what Lucca had used for Gato. "Where am I?" He blinked a pair of metal eyelids before returning to staring at me. "Was it you that reactivated me?"

"I helped." I said. "It was mostly Lucca's doing that brought you online." I gestured to Lucca. He turned to her and bowed.

"So I have you to thank Mistress Lucca." He said. Lucca giggled.

"You can drop the Mistress." She said.

"But I could potentially offend." He replied.

"We're not big on formality." Lucca said. She gestured to Marle. "Marle is a princess, but she doesn't like us treating her like royalty." She gestured to me. "And he's her cousin, which actually makes him a prince, but he doesn't even go by his given name. He's just Gene to all of us." She pointed to Crono. "And this tall and silent swordsman is Crono, our friend. None of us want to be called 'Master' or 'Mistress'. Just our names will do."

"Data noted." The robot said. "But, why are you here?"

"That's a long story, but here goes." Lucca said.  
…

After an hour of explaining Lucca had managed to tell our whole story so far, with some help from Crono, Marle, and I for our parts, and he had listened calmly.

"So, what do we call you?" Marle asked the robot.

"My designation is R66Y." He replied. Marle shook her head.

"That's not a name." She said. "We should give you a proper name. Crono, do you have any suggestions?" He shook his head. "Lucca, what about you?" She shook her head while I thought about it.

"What about Robo?" I asked.

"That sounds good to me." Marle said.

"It's simple, easy to remember, and it's what he is." Lucca said.

"That settles it." Marle said happily. "You're new name is Robo."

"Classification saved to memory banks." Robo said. "I am now, Robo."  
…

I walked behind Robo but ahead of Lucca. Crono and Marle were staying behind to open the door that would lead us to the Gate. I was happy to be travelling with Lucca, and Robo was interesting to say the least. He had shown us several interesting built in weapons, including a rocket powered fist on a cable and a beam weapon inside his torso. He even had a beam device that healed injuries. Lucca hadn't figured those out, so I wasn't going to try. We had destroyed dozens of other machines as well as strange blob creatures that were tough to dispel with weapons. We had to hit them with my Vacuum Slice, Robo's 'laser' attack, and Lucca's Flamethrower in order to get rid of them. They were weak to those, but using Robo's fists, Lucca's new Pocket Blaster laser pistol, and my sword was proving futile.

"These creatures are not registered in my files." Robo said. "I have never seen such organisms before."

"They certainly keep you on your toes." I said. Lucca walked closer to me. We walked onto an 'elevator' and it lowered us to a room with moving floors. "I know this is a damaged future, but I will say that I'm highly interested in the technology." Lucca stepped closer to me and I looked at her. "Is something wrong Lucca? You seem a bit worried."

"I'm a little nervous." She said. "All this machinery, I want to study some of it, but those things. Those, puddle things, could be anywhere." I nodded.

"I know how you feel." I said. "Those things are real pests when there are three of us, but we'd probably have a tough time if we were alone."

"This is it." Robo announced. We looked ahead to see a large metal block with flashing lights of different colors. "This is the Generator for Proto Dome. I shall activate it." He pressed a series of buttons while I looked around.

"Lucca?" I asked. She looked at me. "Do you still have your old pistol?" She nodded. "Could I take a look at it?" She pulled it out and handed it to me. I looked it over. "I've been thinking, Marle uses a crossbow, but, I've been wondering if one could fire a spear from such a weapon. With a slightly bigger barrel, this could fire a spear with air pressure." She nodded as I pointed it ahead of me, into the open area.

"That may be a good idea." Robo said. I looked over at him. "I have activated the generator, so we can now return and continue our quest." A loud noise rang out and I covered my ears, accidentally firing the pistol. Luckily it was empty. "That is the alarm. It would seem that activating the generator has tripped it." He ran around the generator but nothing changed. "We should hurry before the barriers close!" He ran out and we followed him. I still held the pistol in my left hand as we dodged the first barrier, which shut just behind us. We just got through the second, and Robo held open the third. "Hurry, I cannot hold it for long." Lucca and I ran under his arms and he stepped through, his arms groaning slightly beforehand.

"That was close." Lucca said. I wiped my forehead and nodded.

"Any closer and we would have been pancakes." I said.

"And I would have been a manhole cover." Robo said. He made a sound like a laugh and I smiled.

"We should hurry." Lucca said. "We should get out of here before any security robots come after us."  
…

We ran into a room and six blue robots that looked like Robo came out. He ran up to them to talk but they knocked him down and began beating him.

"Robo!" Lucca cried. I ran over to them and one of them knocked me away.

"Please, do not hurt them, they are my friends!" Robo said. His voice had a bit of static to it.

"Leave him alone!" I yelled. I looked at the pistol and I put a small metal pellet in it that I had recovered from a shot Lucca missed, which had hit my armor. I fired it and it bounced off of the robot. "What are we gonna do?" I stood up and put the pistol in my right pocket as one of the robots threw Robo onto a conveyor belt. They looked at us menacingly.

"Now to eliminate the intruders." One of them said. They all ran around us as I drew my sword.

"Possible threat level, significant." Another said. Lucca drew her new laser pistol and shot the closest one in the head, causing it to fall backward. It was the one that had spoken apparently.

"You're gonna pay for hurting our friend." Lucca said. I swung my sword horizontally and three of them were cut in half. She shot another in the chest and I stabbed the last one.

"We should have done this when they attacked him." I said grimly.

"Grab some parts from them." She said. She ran up to the belt and looked up. "I see him. He's stuck. I'll try to get him down, and then we can take him back to Proto Dome."

"We should have brought our tools with us." I said. We had left them in the Dome. I pulled out a large sack and began collecting parts from the machines. "I hope we can put these to good use."  
…

I pulled Robo into a sitting position and put a couple of wooden boards behind him to prop him up, as well as a few to his sides.

"I, am sorry." Robo said.

"Don't talk." Lucca said quietly. "You're battery is really drained, and a lot of the wiring is pretty messed up."

"Not to mention all this damage to your frame." I added.

"Can you fix him again?" Marle asked. Lucca shook her head while I looked over Robo's left hand. It was completely smashed, and the plating was nearly ruined.

"I hope so." She said. "He's taken a real beating, but, I'm confident we can get him around."

"All but his left hand." I said. She looked at me. "I've seen some messed up metal, and I've caused a lot of it to smaller robots, but this is something else. The plating is a lost cause, the frame is completely ruined, and the only things I think we can save are the wires and these plastic things."

"My circuit boards." Robo said. I looked up at him.

"Don't worry big guy, we'll get you up and running in no time." I said. "But you need to conserve what's left of your energy until we can put in a new battery." He nodded. "I think, no, I believe, that we can get you a new hand. It might not be as good as what you used to have, but I think you'll like it."

"What do you mean?" Lucca asked. I pulled out my Grip Gloves and she nodded. "Oh yeah, you did bring those with you."

"What are they?" Marle asked.

"Grip Gloves." I replied. I put the right one on and grabbed a wrench with it. "It's got high friction rubber to keep anything in your hands with them on. If Lucca can put in the circuits and the wires, I can put on the plating and that should make an effective replacement hand for Robo. Lucky for us I salvaged a lot of metal plates from those blue ones."  
…

Two days and three nights of hard work paid off. We had done everything we could and Robo was ready to be turned on again.

"Okay." Lucca said. "Here goes nothing. If we can't get him working this time, I'm afraid we'll have to come back later with the parts we need to fix him." She pressed a few buttons and Robo's eyes became bright again. "Robo, are you okay?" He nodded and stood up.

"Thanks to you and Gene, I believe I am fully functional." He said.


End file.
